Convention center gets another booking before getting approved

The Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau has booked a large convention that would generate $6.7 million in visitor spending in October 2014, the bureau announced this week.

The American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging wants to come to the proposed Music City Center and would fill up 27,000 hotel room nights. Molly Sudderth, a CVB spokeswoman, said the group wanted to go to Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center but had to cancel that plan after Opryland postponed an expansion project.

“We convinced them to consider the Music City Center,” Sudderth said. “This was business Nashville was going to lose.”

The Metro Council will vote Tuesday on the controversial proposal to build the $585 million Music City Center, which would have more than three times the exhibit space of the existing Nashville Convention Center.

The CVB said it has already booked 267,000 hotel room nights for the proposed facility, which would open in the first quarter of 2013.